1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to vehicle information management systems and more specifically to a vehicle information management system that manages freeze frame data.
2. Description of the Related Art
There is a known vehicle adapted to store freeze frame data for a vehicle in storage in order to use it to diagnose and repair a malfunction for the occasion of an abnormality generated in the vehicle. Here, the freeze frame data refers to data that includes parameters related to a vehicle state and is used for diagnosing a malfunction in the vehicle. When the vehicle is diagnosed or repaired, the freeze frame data is read out from the storage using an external device. A worker in charge of repair and maintenance specifies the cause of the malfunction or the like based on the read out freeze frame data.
If all of the freeze frame data obtained upon detecting an abnormality about a vehicle is stored, a storage with a large storage capacity is necessary, and it takes time to search for data necessary for clarifying the cause of the malfunction at the time of diagnosing and repairing the vehicle. There is a known method of storing two kinds of freeze frame data, i.e., freeze frame data obtained when an abnormality occurs for the first time and freeze frame data obtained when an abnormality occurs for the last time in order to solve the problems (see JP-A 2005-41273).
In a diagnostic data collecting device disclosed by JP-A 2005-41273, a storage includes first and second storage regions. Freeze frame data obtained upon detecting an abnormality for the first time is stored in the first storage region. Freeze frame data obtained upon detecting an abnormality for the last time is stored in the second storing region.
The diagnostic data collecting device disclosed by JP-A 2005-41273 needs two storage regions for one type of abnormality. Therefore, a large storage capacity is necessary. In order to reduce the storage capacity, one of the two storage regions could be removed, and only one storage region would be provided. In the arrangement with only one storage region, it is not preferable to store freeze frame data obtained upon detecting an abnormality for the first time in view of how to repair the vehicle or the like and only the latest freeze frame data is stored in the storage region. However, depending on the type of an abnormality, it may be difficult to specify the content of the abnormality only based on the latest freeze frame data.